LFB Releases Summary Of Governor Evers Budget
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | March 26, 2019
From The Wheeler Report…
The Legislative Fiscal Bureau has released its summary of Governor Evers 2019-21 proposed state budget. Check it out here.
See Public Instruction agency summary here.
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Referendums Scheduled For April 2, 2019
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | March 26, 2019
From The Wheeler Report…
The following is a complete list of all 59 referendums scheduled for voting on Tuesday, April 2. The list includes:
- 26 Referendums to Issue Debt
- Largest – Sun Prairie – $164 million for a new high school.
- 7 Referendums to Exceed the Revenue Cap on a Recurring Basis
- Largest – Sun Prairie – $5 million a year for a new high school.
- 26 Referendums to Exceed the Revenue Cap on a Non-Recurring Basis
- Largest – Kettle Moraine – $29.9 million over 5 years
See the report here.
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WPF Releases Budget Brief
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | March 25, 2019
The Wisconsin Policy Forum has released its Budget Brief on the Governor’s 2019-21 State Budget. Check it out here.
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JFC Invites Just Six Agencies to Testify on Budget
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | March 25, 2019
From WisPolitics.com:
The Joint Finance Committee has asked the heads of six agencies to testify April 3-4 on the guv’s budget, a significant reduction from the number of cabinet secretaries who typically brief members on the proposal.
In a letter to committee members, Co-chairs Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, and John Nygren, R-Marinette, said they’ve asked to hear from the departments of Public Instruction, Transportation, Health Services, Workforce Development, Corrections and Natural Resources.
The co-chairs are also encouraging the Legislature’s standing committees to invite the other agencies to appear before them for budget briefings.
The six department heads being called before the committee is a departure from past practice. According to information compiled by the co-chairs’ offices, the number of agency heads who have testified on the last seven budgets range from 16 in 2005-07 and 2015-17 to 21 for the 2017-19 budget.
GOP leaders have expressed concern about the $83.4 billion in spending Gov. Tony Evers has proposed and discussed ignoring his proposal and instead building their own budget off current law.
Dem Sen. Jon Erpenbach, a member of JFC, said he worried only calling six secretaries before the committee was a sign Republicans plan to swiftly push aside Evers’ proposal. He said that would set a difficult tone for negotiations to reach a compromise.
“It’s a situation where the governor put a proposal out there, Finance has to look at it line-by-line and every agency matters,” Erpenbach said. “Every agency should be before Finance.”
According to the letter, the co-chairs have asked cabinet secretaries to limit their testimony to 15 minutes. They then plan to grant members up to 10 minutes each for questions, including the time it takes agency representatives to respond.
Rep. Chris Taylor, another Dem JFC member, questioned why the UW System, for example, wasn’t on the list considering its nearly $12.8 billion budget proposal when counting state money, federal aid and other revenue. She called the decision to have standing committees take testimony on some pieces of the budget “strange,” saying Republicans didn’t make such a move while Gov. Scott Walker was in office.
“If they’re important enough to go to standing committees, they should be before the Joint Finance Committee, which handles the budget,” said Taylor, D-Madison.
Read the letter here.
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LFB Memo Shows Impact of Evers’ Proposed Special Ed Aid Increase
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | March 22, 2019
The SAA just received a copy of a memo from the Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) detailing the impact of Governor Evers’ proposed increase in special education (SPED) categorical aid on each school district. Check it out.
Governor Evers’ proposal would increase state SPED reimbursement rates from the current 25.3% of special education costs to 30% in 2019-20 and 60% in 2020-21. Evers’ proposal would boost SPED categorical aid by a total of $606 million over the 2019-21 biennium.
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